THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The last show I worked on before I left the show was the show that stars Neil Gaiman.  I really like his stories so I had fun working on the show.  It’s one of my favorite shows of this season.

I’m now on a one week break and then I go back to work next week. I had originally thought I was going to be out for two weeks but I guess I’m not.  When I return to work, it will be for two weeks.  I’ll be revising the last show of the season.  Once that’s done, I’ll be out of work for three weeks.  I might open myself up for commissions, I haven’t decided yet. Especially since I’ve never done it before and I don’t know if anyone would be interested.

MY WEEK

I’ve been very busy this week. Besides working on my new BLACK TERROR KID comic, I’ve also taken on yet another job. This time it’s for my wife. She has an 85,000 work novel manuscript she’s finished and has been sending it around to agents.  She’s had a few close calls but not bites yet. She’s decided to e-publish the book herself. She now needs a cover for her book, so I’ve volunteered to help her with that.

Monday we had a friend of her’s come over to model a photo shoot.  That took up a lot of time. I hope to get started on that cover soon.

VIDEOS/ART

The very beginning of this video has one of my favorite artists Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius) drawing on a Cintiq.  The man is (as of the time of this writing) 73 and is a master of his craft. The best part about it, is simply seeing his process.  Being a master draftsman, he could have simply drawn directly what he wanted, but he didn’t.  The piece he draws is a bit more involved and so he chose to not only put in a perspective grid, but he also drew a quick, rough under drawing of what the wanted to draw.

Why do I point this out? Because after so many years of drawing and being a master draftsman, he STILL relies on the basics. I’ve experience, to often, fellow artists who have been professionally drawing for over ten or twenty years that seems to scoff at the idea that they need to put down a perceptive grid or set down an under drawing because they think they are masters themselves after so many years of drawing. Yet I doubt anyone of them has as much experience as Jean Giraud and HE still uses them. If it’s good enough for him, why not us? Are we better draftsmen then he?

WRITING

Alright, before I begin, I have to apologize to everyone who has read my treatment so far.  I have recently reread the whole thing since I first wrote  it and discovered how awful the writing in it is.  Again, I apologize.  It’s all written in a stream of consciousness sort of way and I guess I hadn’t realized how reader unfriendly it actually is.  The problem is that I didn’t really want  to labor over it too much, since:

1. it’s not the final product, just a guide for myself, and
2. it’s the first draft.

My hope is that the ideas presented are good enough for you to realize what I’m after, even though the prose style is completely awful.
Okay so, on with what I did with this part:

After beating my head against the wall writing action, this last scene was a piece of cake.  It was pretty straight forward.

I developed the hot dog vendor a bit more here.  Gave me ideas for sight gags.

If you read the synopsis below, you’ll notice it’s a bit different than the final treatment.  It’s basically the same thing, just in a slightly different way.  There’s only so much planning you can do. You have let the story do it’s own thing:

Scene 9 (Thought/Actuality)

• • Rob puts down his weapon, walks away. He helps the other Sorcerers up and then starts picking up his things, which are now all over the destroyed area they fought on.  By the time he’s done, the Sorcerers are gone. When he begins to walk away, the hot dog vendor calls out to him. He has two hot dogs for him, seemingly bought by the Lead Sorcerer. (Resolution)

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day concluded

The Sorcerer stares at Rob as he walks away. How dare he say those things. Who does he think he is? How DARE he. After the MERCY he has shown to Rob. The nerve. This shall not stand!

The Sorcerer begins to cast a spell. He’s going to strike Rob down once and for all.

Rob kneels down to check on his raven friend.  He doesn’t notice what’s going on behind him.  The hammer has since returned to it’s minuscule size. The raven seems to just be stunned.  It blinks up and squawks happily at Rob.  He looks a bit scuffled but otherwise, he’s okay.

The Sorcerer aims and is about to strike. But stalls just a bit too long and sees the way Rob treats his bird.  He thinks about what Rob said.  He looks around at his companions.  One is still knocked out and the other is so self involved with himself sobbing, he hasn’t even checked on the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on.  He sees the destruction around him. He looks at his hands ready with the spell. He takes a long look at himself and reflects on what’s happened in the last few minutes. He’s about to strike a man in the back.  He drops his hands and doesn’t cast the spell. He hates to admit it, but Rob was right.  The injustice was theirs.

Rob gets up and takes the raven over to his backpack.  He sets him down and the raven shakes itself.  Rob unzips a pocket in his pack and takes out some gauze, tape and disinfectant. He begins to apply the disinfectant and cleans his wounds. Once done, he wraps up the wounds.  He doesn’t manage to wrap them all up, but he gets enough of them.  He then puts the disinfectant away and unzips another part of his pack.  He reaches in and takes out a clean shirt.  He carefully puts it on.  The process is obviously painful. He dearly wishes the Sorcerers would just leave him alone.  He doesn’t have a lot of clothes to spare.  When he gets a chance, he’ll have to change his ripped up pants also.

He zips up his pack, painfully gets up, and delicately puts the pack on. He forces himself to look around for the Sorcerers. They are gone.  There’s no sign of them.  Good riddance. His stomach grumbles and he feels the hunger again.  He sighs.  It’s bad enough he feels the pain all over the outside of his body, but he still has the pain on the inside and he can’t do anything about it.  Maybe he could find a water fountain somewhere to fill his belly.  He calls to the raven who gingerly lands on his shoulder and he begins to walk out the of the shopping area.

He hadn’t taken two steps before he hears someone call out to him.  He turns to see that it’s the hot dog vendor in his stall.  Miraculously, the stall survived the chaos of the fight, unscathed. Rob goes over to the stall.  The hot dog vendor hands him two hot dogs on a plate.  The hot dog vendor still has the same expression and attitude as he did earlier.  It’s as if the crazy fight and the destruction around him, hadn’t happened.  He tells Rob that the hot dogs are his.

Rob asks the vendor if it’s a gift from him?

The vendor looks scandalized and denies the accusation as if he’d been insulted. He tells Rob the hot dogs were bought for him by the skinny guy with the eighties pompadour.   Rob looks around again for the Sorcerer but he’s no where in sight.

The vendor asks Rob if he’s going to take the hot dogs. If he isn’t, he’ll just throw them away.

Rob looks down at the hot dogs. What if it’s a trap? What if they are poisoned or worse?

The vendor takes them and says he’s tossing them. Rob stops him. He’s so hungry he doesn’t care.  He asks for them.  The vendor hands the hot dogs over.  Rob asks the vendor why he’s so calm after what just happened.  The vendor tell Rob he grew up in — El Salvador and that he’s seen worse.  Rob just kinda thinks oookay and then turns and walks away.

He looks down at the hot dogs and his mouth begins to water. He wonders what made the Sorcerer buy him the hot dog.  Perhaps, this is a sign of good things to come.  He smiles. He walks over to the fountain and sits down on one of the walls that surround it.  He tells the raven there’s enough for each of them. He hands the raven a hot dog and takes one himself.  He takes a bite.

Best thing he’s ever tasted. Life is awesome.

THE END

At this point, it’s tricky for me to say how much out of story “business” like the hot dog vendor should be in the final story.  On the other hand, he’s kind of important since he give Rob the hot dogs.

Okay, so the next thing there’s left for me to do is figure out a good magick system.  Once I do that, I’ll rewrite the parts of the treatment that are effected by the new system. I’m so glad I’m finally done! At least, with the first draft.  I think the reediting will be much easier. I don’t think I’ll post the second draft. I might just make a note of the changes (perhaps).

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